Hi there, for a long time now (not that I’ve been here very long) myself and others have noticed a huge demand for requests of people to make or build custom Blu Ray sets of the Star Wars Despecialized Editions for them or other projects. As we all know the buying and selling of Preservation & Fan Edits is strictly prohibited and against the rules; it cannot and will not happen - because mainly it endangers what we do here.
However, we also get a lot of requests for printed discs and this is where I’d like to come in to give back to a community that I’ve gotten so much from myself. And so, I present to you the moderator-approved Disc Printing Service from Captain Danielsan.
I have built my own set which can be seen - here (the first two in this example were amateur attempts before I honed my skills, the blu rays at the end are what I’m talking about). I liked how it turned out and especially love the job my Canon Pixma IP7250 Printer does on the Verbatim inkjet printable discs. Self-adhesive labels are too risky in my opinion and are not worth the future issues they can bring about like warping of discs and peeling, often leaving drives and players un-usable.
To summarise, I am proposing that anybody who cannot afford the cost of a printer that prints ‘direct to disc’ or already has one that doesn’t - and you can’t justify the cost of another at home, then I will print on discs for you and post them back to you on a strictly AT COST basis (including postage).
STRICT WARNING : the discs I send out to you will be 100% BLANK and have no content on them whatsoever. So please don’t ask me to burn discs for you. This is against forum rules and has not been moderator approved. I am empowered to print only onto blank discs and send them out, NO CONTENT IS PROVIDED. You have to do this part yourself. Sorry about this, I can save you the cost of a printer but you still need to acquire your own disc burner for the final touch.
Update : I have also been given permission to print onto discs that have already been burned by yourselves - to save on pre-printed coasters being made at your expense. Simply burn whatever content you want onto a blank printable disc you already have. Ensure that there are no errors and it plays flawlessly, then send me the disc(s) including a pre-paid return self-addressed envelope for me to send them back to you once I have printed on them.
As Solkap has pointed out to me this will greatly reduce margin for error as not much can go wrong on my end printing discs. But if I send a set amount of printed discs back to you and then you create a few coasters… we are ‘up said creek without a paddle’, as they say.
Disc Printing Service FAQ:-
• How do I know you aren’t profiting from this?
So, here’s how this service will work… send me a PM to submit your request. I have numerous artwork available already for the usual things… but if I don’t have what you want you need to find it yourself and email me the artwork - I will provide my email address. I don’t have time to search or create artwork, sorry - I have a wife and two kids and my otherwise busy life to contend with. We will then come to a mutual agreement of how many discs you need and at what price and brand you desire. We will select together from a bay looking website which discs you want and how many. You will then send me exactly the amount for these discs - plus postage cost of the printed discs to yourself plus a small maintenance fee. Not a PENNY more. I am not asking for labour cost here people. Once discs are purchased I will provide you a copy of the invoice as proof of purchase.
• Wouldn’t it be cheaper if you bought discs in bulk?
Yes, it obviously would - but this is a strictly ‘made-to-order’ service I’m offering that I am going to contain the funds for perpetually in my PayPal account. If I buy a bulk load of discs without any orders placed yet, that would be out of my own pocket while I wait to make the money back from your orders….no can do people. I’m not running a business here - just trying to help out the community I love.
• Any restrictions on Disc types or Brands?
Not really other than a couple of simple points. I wont buy cheap unbranded or generic Blu Rays or DVD’s. Cheap Blu rays especially are extremely risky. They often use a process known as LTH in their production. BD-R LTH is a write-once Blu-ray Disc format that features an organic dye recording layer. “Low To High” refers to the reflectivity changing from low to high during the burning process, which is the opposite of normal Blu-rays, whose reflectivity changes from high to low during writing. In 2011, France’s Ministry of Culture and Communication conducted a study on the suitability of data archival of LTH (low to high) discs compared to HTL (high to low) discs. The data they collected indicated that the overall quality of LTH discs is worse than HTL discs. Because of the organic dye used in producing these discs they are more susceptible to degradation over time and can become un-playable resulting in the loss of your data or video.
HTL discs use a high to low phase change when writing to disc, and in the manufacturing process they are made with an in-organic metal alloy which results in a much longer archival shelf life of your data. Therefore I will only use discs advertised as HTL - preferably from brands like SONY, Panasonic, and Verbatim. The latter being the best imo. With DVD’s it is the same again. I won’t buy unbranded generic discs - but I trust and have used Maxcel, Verbatim and a few others.
• What postage service and costs are there?
I will be using Royal Mail international services to the USA and just plain old 1st Class ‘signed for’ in the UK. Here are the details for USA postage - https://www.royalmail.com/united-states-america.
An example package containing 10 discs can be sent for £7.45. £8.45 once I have packaged the items myself appropriately. The USA options also include more expensive ‘tracked and signed for’ options which we can discuss via PMs.
Here are some example images of what I will be using to send to members in the USA…
• What do you mean by maintenance fee?
What I mean is a small fee to cover the cost of my ink you will get on your discs, wear and tear for my printer and a small amount to cover electricity. I’ve done extensive research on the longevity of my printer, the cost of my ink cartridges and the amount of KW per hour my printer uses (negligible) and I cannot justify any more than £1. Yes, one British pound. I will review this if I start to run out of ink faster than I can replace it.
• What’s the maximum number of discs I can get from you?
At the moment I am willing to send a maximum of 10 discs at a time per customer per order. Be they DVD or BD-R. This is enough to print a certain ‘special’ set of artwork available to those in the know. BUT NO CONTENT ON THE DISCS. Once you have your package with you, you may not place another order from me for 12 weeks. This also fits with postage well and keeps costs to you low.
• Can you also print DVD and Blu ray covers/inserts?
No – Do this part yourself, it is the easiest part of making a set, that and buying empty cases.
• How much will a typical set of 10 discs cost me all in?
£18.47; of which £8.45 is for postage, the £1 maintenance fee, and a 10 pack of Verbatims 25gb Blu Rays can currently be had for £9.02. That includes postage to the States (which takes 5-7 days by the way).
Obviously, DVDs would be considerably cheaper - and postage to the UK would be slightly less because that’s where I am. But we can maul these details over in PMs. I don’t know what all that is in dollars but we can discuss.
A decent currency converter website can be found here - http://www.xe.com/currencyconverter/
• Can’t you just burn some content for me onto the discs?
No absolutely not. Don’t even ask. Anyone who asks will be ignored and then reported to the moderators.
• What kind of image quality can I expect on my discs?
In true Blue Peter style, this kind…here’s one I made earlier. The blurriness is only from my phone camera, the ‘Star wars SSE’ part at the top is crystal clear on the actual disc…
• Can anyone use this service?
Provided you are on planet earth and Royal Mail can reach you, I can do it. However, I have agreed a set of requirements with moderators. You must have been a member of originaltrilogy.com for at least 3 months and have a post count of at least 30. (not spam posts).
• What if my discs go missing in the post?
I won’t be held responsible for this, sorry. I urge you to opt for a ‘tracked and signed for’ service.
• How long will it take for me to get my discs from you?
As soon as I receive them in the post I will en devour to print on them that evening and post the next working day. However I am a busy family man who also works full time as well so please be patient and be aware that this may cause delays of a couple of days. I will communicate with every member who orders and update them with dispatch times.
• How do I make a request / Place an order?
Start a private topic with me. Introduce yourself. Tell me what you are looking for. How many discs, what kind? DVD or Blu Ray? Where do you live? The UK or USA or somewhere else? What do you want printed on each disc - and whether you have artwork or not? If you don’t you can ask me if I have something. If I don’t have it you can find it for me. And We’ll get a conversation going and iron out further details, like the purchasing of discs and postage etc.
• How do I go about burning my files onto my newly printed Blu Rays or DVDs?
If they are mkv files then you need a program like TSmuxer to convert your files into Blu ray compatible folders or ISO’s. If you have DVD folders or ISO’s ready to go then you need only IMGBurn a free program. And then follow Step 10 and onwards in this useful thread by Solkap - here
I would be more than happy to talk people through this easy process via PMs. Alternatively, visit Solkap’s linked thread above.
Disclaimer Notice: ‘The site is not responsible for any problems that result from this kind offer. Please use your own good judgment’.
Captain
Out.